The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

292 QUMRAN COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND TERMINOLOGY
All three documents, the Rule of the Community, the Rule of the Congregation,
and the Damascus Document, use the wilderness tradition of Exod 18:21
and Deut 1:15 and portray the community as if it were organized as an
army. According to the Rule of the Community, the lay members of the community
shall enter the covenant in “thousands, hundreds, fifties, and
tens” (1QS 2.21–22) at the annual ceremony of the covenant renewal.
Special officials at the heads of the groups are mentioned in the Rule of the
Congregation: “the heads of the thousands of Israel, the commanders of
hundreds, the commanders of fifties, [the commanders] of tens”
(1.14–15; see also 1.29–2.1). The rule for the camps in CD 13.1–2 orders
the groups consisting of at least ten members to be divided according to
“thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.”
When the community groups are mentioned separately, different
kinds of names are usually used. The term dxyh y#n) occurs in the Rule
of the Community in the section recorded in columns 5–9. It refers to the
members of the community in general and is somewhat synonymous
with the term Mybrh, 19 except that the latter has a more administrative
connotation. Full certainty cannot be attained as to whether the term
dxyh y#n) also covers the members who were still in their probational
period or whether the term, like Mybrh, designated full members exclusively.
In two out of the twelve occurrences dxyh y#n) alludes to the lay
members alone (1QS 5.2–3; 9.7), and in the contexts of these a differentiation
has been made between the lay members (dxyh y#n) bwr or
dxyh y#n)) and the priests (qwdc ynb or Nwrh) ynb). In the Damascus
Document dxyh y#n) occurs only once, in manuscript B (CD 20.32
dyxyh y#n), corr. dxyh y#n)). There are no occurrences of the term in
the Rule of the Congregation.
One might think that hnxmh ynb occurring in CD 13.13 would constitute
a term parallel to dxyh y#n), but that occurrence is unique in the
Damascus Document, which does not intend to use any single specific name
for the community members (note, e.g., that “those who enter the
covenant” and “sons of Israel” are used frequently). Contrary to the Rule
of the Community, women and children are mentioned both in the Rule of the
Congregation and the Damascus Document (1QSa 1.4; CD 4.21; 5.10; 7.7–8;
12.1 par. 4QD f (4Q271) frag. 5, col. 1, line 17; 16.10–12; 19.3). 20
The documents are fairly consistent in the names of priests. They are
called simply Mynhwkh (e.g., 1QS 1.18; 2.19; 6.4–5; 8.1; 1QSa 1.15–16;
19. See note 6 for references.
20. There are also eight occurrences in 4QD e that have no parallels in CD: 4QD e frag.
2, col. 1, line 18; frag. 2, col. 2, lines 16, 17; 4.1, 2, 6, 13; 5.21; frag. 7, col. 1, line 13.